Call for Submissions: Turn & Work

Turn & Work

Turn & Work is an independent music and literary publication. We believe that a literate, creative subculture is essential for understanding the world we live in. Art is upstream of politics; it shapes people and culture. And somehow, despite all this technology, it’s harder than ever for independent artists to break through.

This site started as a book blog, but it’s evolved to be about more than that: independent music, original short stories, and other great work from around the web.

Because art is work, regardless of medium. It’s hard, it takes time, and it generally doesn’t pay well. It takes guts to share that work with the world and hope that it connects with people.

So, Turn & Work is our way of supporting the people who do that work. It’s a way to show appreciation for the art that’s connected with us and to share it with you.

We hope you find things you love here. If you do, share them widely. If you’ve spent some time here and have something you’d like to share with us, we’d love that too.

It is:

• 3-ish book reviews a week, plus an essentials list of what we think everyone should read

• 4-ish music features a week — reviews, interviews, and Backstory posts, where artists tell their own story in their own words. See some examples, and read the brief

• The Shortlist: curated links to excellent short fiction and creative nonfiction from around the web

• The Setlist: a weekly playlist of new independent music, plus callouts to artists worth your time

• Short Stories: original and reprinted short stories

• Welcome Distractions: the Thursday newsletter. Music, books, links, opinions, and a custom playlist for subscribers who request it

It isn't:

• Pay-for-play. We don’t take money from musicians or writers, directly or indirectly.

• Coverage of artists who already have ten publications writing about them

• “Band X Announces Y.” We don’t republish press releases or repackage announcements as content.

it might be:

Something even better! We’re always looking for people who are serious about something. If you have a beat (a genre, a scene, a love of literature nobody’s covering well) and you want to write about it, we want to hear from you. Guest posts, regular columns, one-offs. No pitching to an anonymous inbos: Email Hugh directly.

Simple rule: we cover things we’d want to find somewhere else. If you think your work belongs here, we want you to reach out. If you want to put someone else’s work on our radar, please do that too.

We don’t take money from artists or authors, directly or indirectly. We’ll happily accept freebies (ARCs, vinyl, or t-shirts have shown up from time to time), but coverage is always at our discretion. We don’t use SubmitHub or any pay-for-play discovery service.

Everything on Turn & Work is written by a human. We only cover work we actually care about.
For publicists and agencies

We work with publicists regularly and we’re always interested in early access to music that we would consider covering. We do reviews, premieres, Backstory posts (artist-written, no interview format), and Q&As. If you’re pitching, email Hugh. If you’re not sure whether it’s a fit, check the New Music features or the Setlist Archive first.

Always open. The only real requirement is that the story is compelling.

What we look for:

What we look for: fiction and creative nonfiction, flash through short story length. No hard minimum or maximum — if it’s over 2,000 words it should have a great hook. Any genre, any style. Reprints are welcome, just be upfront about prior publication. Poetry too, though I lean toward narrative verse that reads like flash fiction.

We don’t accept AI-generated text. If we suspect it’s AI-assisted, it’s a pass.

How to submit:

Send a Word doc with a short bio (one or two sentences). Simultaneous submissions are fine — just let us know if it gets picked up elsewhere. You keep your rights; we ask for first publishing rights only. We aim to respond within a month. No response means no.

Submit your story! 

We cover full albums, EPs, and singles. We lean toward indie rock, post-punk, punk rock, hyperpop, and electronic music with English lyrics — but a compelling song in any genre will get our attention. Check the Setlist Archive or Music Essentials to get a sense of what moves us.

Check the New Music features or the Setlist Archive to see what we dig.

What we look for:

Music that’s a little rough or weird, with a strong emotional core. Extra credit for Canadian and Australian artists.

What to include:

A link to your music (MP3s preferred, streaming is fine), an EPK or basic bio with at minimum your name and where you’re from, lyrics if available. Pre-releases welcome.

How We Cover Music:

Singles from early-stage artists go into Monday Music Posts. EPs and shorter projects get covered in New and Noted. Full features are for albums and EPs with a strong narrative core. Backstory posts are artist-written — no interview format, no Q&A, just the story behind the work in your own words, the more personal the better. We also do interviews and profiles.

Everything we cover during the week lands on the Friday Setlist alongside other new music we’ve found.

Submit your music 

We’re looking for people who are serious about something — a genre, a scene, a corner of literature or music that isn’t getting the coverage it deserves. Guest posts, regular columns, and one-offs all welcome. We don’t pay yet, but I expect that to change in 2026.

Come at US!